Welcome to Affirming The Faith
Quotes
113
“This prayer of petition [Jesus, in Gethsemane, particularly Luke 26: 42] finds a climax of belief in obedience to a Father who has effectively hidden himself in the darkness that surrounds his Son. As Job said ... ‘If he would slay me, I should not hesitate; I should still argue my cause to his face’ (Job 13:15). Even the apparently inevitable death of the holy one will not dampen his trust in God's providence, even the providence of a God who seems to have absented himself from the world he has created.” - Martin Israel, Gethsemane. The Transfiguring Love, London, Fount Paperbacks, 1987, p. 79.
112
“It is the very principle of the Culture of Death that the “value” of human life depends upon the valuers, and not upon the God-given nature of the human being in question” – Anthony Esolen, ‘Notre Madame et le President. There Was No Moral Common Ground’, Touchstone, July/August 2009.
111
“A 'culture of death' is a culture that, failing to recognize the infinite worth of every human person, chooses death as a 'solution' to its problems” - Christopher West, Theology of the Body for Beginners. A Basic Introduction to Pope John Paul II's Sexual Revolution, West Chester, Pennsylvania, Ascension Press, 2004, p. 14.
110
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” - attributed to George Orwell.
109
“ … where the human spirit meets true evil then people either turn into demons or become Christ-like. The terrible reality, though, is that any of us could go either way.” – John Richardson (“the Ugley vicar”) on the art of George Gittoes.
108
“The ethic of the child-batterer is the abortion ethic. Child abusers, like abortion activists, believe in adults’ right to be in control of their lives. Child abusers, like abortionists, believe that only children who gratify parental desires have a right to exist. It is hard to believe that the cultural message contained in abortion, the insistent eulogies to control, and the references to parenting as a right and a pleasure have not contributed to the explosion in child abuse and neglect.”, Maggie Gallagher, Enemies of Eros. Bonus Books, 1989, pp. 238-239 (with thanks to Bill Muehlenberg Culture Watch).
107
“An environment that stifles his right to a voice is worse than one that overheats” – Antonia Senior on the muzzling of global warming sceptics, such as Ian Plimer, The Times (London), 24 July 2009, p. 27.
106
“Without the conscious pursuit of beauty we risk falling into a world of addictive pleasures and routine desecration, a world in which the worthwhileness of human life is no longer clearly perceivable” – Roger Scruton, “Beauty and its corruptions”, Catholic Education Research Center.
105
“For some years now, the medical establishment has fallen under the spell of academic ethicists and philosophers who, in accordance with fashionable dogma, have no respect whatever for the intrinsic value of human life — or indeed any absolute values. … Life should be respected in itself. That is our most basic protection against the kind of inhumanity that lay behind the eugenics movement and the ideology of the Nazis. Doctors should be in the first line of defence against such barbarism. The fact that they have blundered onto the wrong side shows how badly this society has lost its way.” – Melanie Phillips, ‘The Royal College of Infanticide’ 6 November 2006
104
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” - attributed to Sir Winston Churchill
103
“What is really avant-garde today, in the original, combative sense of the term, is to stand for life, for beauty, and for truth. Nothing shocks us more.” - Micah Mattix, ‘Shock Value’, Touchstone, June 2009
102
“It is crucial to recall the reality that lies behind [Barack Obama’s] rhetoric. Denouncing “those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents” comes ill from a man whose flagship legislation, the Freedom of Choice Act, will impose abortion, including partial-birth abortion, on every state in the Union. It seems the era of Hope is to be inaugurated with a slaughter of the innocents.” – Gerald Warner, Telegraph.co.uk, Accessed 22 January 2009.
101
“The dilemma any false prophet has to handle is that there comes a point where you really have to start acting like a wolf, otherwise all that dressing up as a sheep would have been rather pointless. … This is a problem which Gene Robinson, the controversial Bishop of New Hampshire, has handled with some skill. … The risks that false prophets are prepared to take need to be matched by continuing courageous action on the part of godly leaders, willing if necessary to risk institutional order rather than risk the truth.” – Charles Raven, Anglican SPREAD website, 20 January 2009.
100
“To be exposed to British culture is to run a gauntlet of degradation, vulgarity, obscenity, prurience, voyeurism, cruelty and sadism.” - Melanie Phillips on the BBC’s broadcasting of Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand’s obscene ‘prank’; 28 October 2008.
99
“The life and ministry of Jesus must, above all others, be the example that the Church should follow in seeking to be obedient to the great commission [Matthew 28: 20]. Any other example will leave the Church wanting. One has to conclude, therefore, that if any sector of the Church is failing to follow Jesus in casting out demons, then that sector will suffer.” - Peter Horrobin, Healing Through Deliverance, Lancaster (England), Sovereign World, revised and expanded edition, 2008, p. 185.
98
“ … how do supposedly religious people reject the sanctity of life and support someone [Barack Obama] who voted against a [U.S.] “Born Alive Infant Protection” law which would protect babies accidentally born alive after a botched abortion? Frankly, if that’s not evil, I’m not sure what is. And it takes a priest in Greenville, South Carolina [Rev. Jay Scott Newman] to rise up against all the moral relativism we face in the world and speak the truth. … one thing that can be said with clarity and consistency: the [Roman] Catholic Church has been a beacon in leading the fight against the destruction of the unborn.” - Mike Gallagher, ‘Finally, a Religious Leader with Guts’, Townhall.com , 14 November 2008
97
“... the secret of living is the same as the secret of joy; both revolve around Christ. Don’t try to pursue happiness, just cultivate a Christ-centred, Christ-controlled life, and you’ll have more happiness than you know what to do with!” - Bob & Debby Gass with Ruth Gass Halliday, The Word For Today, entry for 11 July 2008.
96
“Does [N. T. ]Wright [Bishop of Durham] really believe that with women bishops on the way, that England’s moribund parishes will miraculously fill up on Sunday morning with torpid English men and women, filled with coffee, emerging out of the fog to fill near empty pews to hear the Rt. Rev. Eleanor Snodgrass, formerly just the Rev. Snodgrass drone on about the environment, and during the passing of the peace, insist that all the old age pensioners grab their canes go outside and hug a tree? … Rowan Williams and his Instruments of Unity are presiding over a dying body, who many believe is no longer the Body of Christ, but something altogether different” – David Virtue, Virtueonline, 8 July 2008:
95
“When God wishes to be the whole life of souls ... all individual ideas, understanding, endeavours, searching, or argument become a source of fantasy. And when, after several experiences of the folly of their own efforts, they finally recognize their futility, they discover that God has blocked every other avenue in order that they should walk with him alone.” - Jean-Pierre de Caussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment (trans. K. Muggerdige), Fount, 1981, p. 32-3.
94
“The paradox of hedonism [is] the simple, yet stultifying, fact that pleasure cannot satisfy ... Pleasure, beauty, personal relationships: all seem to promise so much, and yet when we grasp them, we find that what we were seeking was not located in them, but lies beyond them.” - Alister McGrath, Understanding Doctrine. Its Purpose and Relevance for Today, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1990, p. 46.
93
“It is thought grand and wise to condemn no opinion whatsoever, and to pronounce all earnest and clever teachers to be trustworthy, however heterogeneous and mutually destructive their opinions may be. - Everything forsooth is true, and nothing is false!” - J. C. Ryle, Holiness (1877), edition produced by James Clark, London, 1956, p. 11
92
“… while infanticide was commonly accepted in ancient times, only the Jews and the Christians actively opposed it. The strength of their opposition paid off when infanticide was outlawed by Emperor Valentinian, a Christian, in the 4th century. So, as Western culture abandons its Christian roots, we ought not to be surprised that infanticide is making a comeback”. - from Bishop Tom Wright’s sermon The Uncomfortable Truth of Easter (Easter Day 2008), as reported by Anglican Mainstream.
91
“What a burden the New Atheists carry! ... To learn nothing about human nature from anyone who wrote before 1859. To despise saints. ... One reason I am a Christian is that following Jesus doesn't force me to leave the rest of the human race (and its full experience) behind. Christ allows me to become an intellectually fulfilled humanist.” - David Marshall, The Truth Behind the New Atheism, Harvest House Publishers, 2007, p. 200.